VIPs - very interesting points. 

I guess one of my questions here would be, how should we interpret Jesus’ words in the Gospels relative to Paul’s writings, John’s writings, etc.?  Do we evaluate what Christ said in light of the other NT books, or is it the other way around?  Or a combination of both, or something else I’m missing entirely?I don’t see any reason to believe that Jesus’ description of the last judgement as an "eternal fire" is meant to be taken any more literally than His description of the kingdom of God as a "mustard seed" or a "coin"… but that makes me wonder all the more what Paul and the other authors might have been thinking when they wrote what they did — and how those writings should be viewed in light of what Christ said (on this and other matters too).  If Christ wasn’t speaking literally, and Paul was, where does the priority fall for our understanding of Scripture?Not really connected to the eschatalogical direction your post was going, I suppose, but that’s what it brought up in my mind.